Declension

Declension
Declension De*clen"sion, n. [Apparently corrupted fr. F. d['e]clinaison, fr. L. declinatio, fr. declinare. See {Decline}, and cf. {Declination}.] 1. The act or the state of declining; declination; descent; slope. [1913 Webster]

The declension of the land from that place to the sea. --T. Burnet. [1913 Webster]

2. A falling off towards a worse state; a downward tendency; deterioration; decay; as, the declension of virtue, of science, of a state, etc. [1913 Webster]

Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts To base declension. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

3. Act of courteously refusing; act of declining; a declinature; refusal; as, the declension of a nomination. [1913 Webster]

4. (Gram.) (a) Inflection of nouns, adjectives, etc., according to the grammatical cases. (b) The form of the inflection of a word declined by cases; as, the first or the second declension of nouns, adjectives, etc. (c) Rehearsing a word as declined. [1913 Webster]

Note: The nominative was held to be the primary and original form, and was likened to a perpendicular line; the variations, or oblique cases, were regarded as fallings (hence called casus, cases, or fallings) from the nominative or perpendicular; and an enumerating of the various forms, being a sort of progressive descent from the noun's upright form, was called a declension. --Harris. [1913 Webster]

{Declension of the needle}, declination of the needle. [1913 Webster]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.

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  • declension — index curtailment, decrease, decrement, degradation, deterioration, rejection, relapse Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Bur …   Law dictionary

  • declension — mid 15c., ultimately from L. declinationem (nom. declinatio), noun of action from pp. stem of declinare (see DECLINE (Cf. decline)); perhaps via French; the form is irregular, and its history obscure [OED] …   Etymology dictionary

  • declension — decline, decadence, *deterioration, degeneration, devolution Analogous words: decaying or decay, disintegration, crumbling (see corresponding verbs at DECAY): retrogressiveness or retrogression, regressiveness or regression (see corresponding… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • declension — ► NOUN 1) the variation of the form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective that identifies its grammatical case, number, and gender. 2) the class to which a noun or adjective is assigned according to this variation. ORIGIN from Old French decliner to… …   English terms dictionary

  • declension — [dē klen′shən, diklen′shən] n. [ME declenson < OFr declinaison < L declinatio, a bending aside, inflection (< pp. of declinare: see DECLINE): ME form infl. by assoc. with L descensio, a descending: see DESCEND] 1. a bending or sloping… …   English World dictionary

  • Declension — In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number (at least singular and plural), case (nominative or subjective, genitive or possessive, etc.), and gender. A declension is also a group… …   Wikipedia

  • declension — /di klen sheuhn/, n. 1. Gram. a. the inflection of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives for categories such as case and number. b. the whole set of inflected forms of such a word, or the recital thereof in a fixed order. c. a class of such words… …   Universalium

  • declension — noun /dɪˈklɛn.ʃən/ a) A way of categorizing nouns, pronouns, or adjectives according to the inflections they receive. In Latin, amicus belongs to the second declension. Most second declension nouns end in i in the genitive singular and um in the… …   Wiktionary

  • declension — n. an adjective; noun; strong; weak declension * * * [dɪ klenʃ(ə)n] noun strong weak declension an adjective …   Combinatory dictionary

  • declension — UK [dɪˈklenʃ(ə)n] / US [dɪˈklenʃən] noun Word forms declension : singular declension plural declensions linguistics 1) [uncountable] the process by which the form of nouns, adjectives, or pronouns changes in some languages depending on their… …   English dictionary

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